You know, Axel Stordahl's Lure of Paradise lp seems to get plenty attention for it's sexy cover & I think it's been reissued on CD in Japan. At any rate, I actually prefer his "Jasmine & Jade" lp and maybe Dot just didn't release as many of these or what, but I've only run across it a few times anywhere. It's definitely a bit more jazzy & aggressive sounding, but it has some great exotica tracks..."Neiani" in particular.

Frankie Carles was a very well known pop pianist back in the 1940s & 50s. My mom had MANY of his 10 inch lps. Later in his career, he did a Hawaiian lp...which I'll feature later in a line-up of "doesn't she look familiar?" , and he cashed-in on the success of Martin Denny, etc with this 1966 lp "The Tropical Style of Frankie Carle." It's very MOR (middle of the road, easy listening) but enough percussion & exotic touches to make it interesting. Seems like no one knows this lp, but I would think it fits in nicely with Ferrante & Teicher's "Pianos in Paradise." Tracks include Quiet Village, Poinciana, Off Shore, Yellow Bird...the usual suspects.

You know, as I'm writing these thoughts up, I'm wondering if Dot records just didn't release huge numbers of their lps as did Columbia, RCA, etc. Here's another Dot lp that i just don't see often. "Driftwood" by the Jimmy Namaro Trio is a very nice effort..a mix of Polynesian sounds (Tahiti Boat, Driftwood, etc) and more latinesque/Filipino sounds (Balikpapan, Lamento Marimba, Chi Chi Cha Cha Cha). Again, a nice lp that would fit in well in any tiki bar...seems prime for a CD re-issue to me.

On 2009-11-16 13:34, Kaiwaza wrote:I imagine many of us have at least ONE copy of this LP in our collections. WE know about the Luke Leilani budget LPs..well, this is the budget label "exotica" recording of drumming & African/Haitian/Whatever voodoo vocals that was reissued under a hundred different names & titles. I do love when it was released as "Tahitian Percussion" because it CLEARLY isn't...but I find this jacket to be fetching & I honestly have seldom seen it around the thrift or record shops.
Imean, one is always stumbling across blondes in the jungle, right?

Amazing...from THE JUNGLE! And it has a Silver Seal! (The Seal of Un-Authenticity!?) You mean THIS Tahitian Percussion?:

My favorite Arthur Lyman lp and a rare one, Island vibes was recorded in Hawaii in 1980. It's a completely solo album featuring only Arthur Lyman playing vibes with the sound of the ocean waves. Tracks include: The Magic islands, King's serenade, Whispering reef, Waipio, Yellow bird, and others.
A rare Martin Denny album, recorded in 1980 during his stint at the Wailea Beach Hotel on Maui island. A more scaled back approach, it's more "piano lounge" and features two "new" compositions written by Denny for the album: From Maui with love, and Raffles (the name of the hotel's restaurant).

The budget label "exotica drumming" sessions turn up again, on this Omega records release. Talk about a real mismatch in cover art & music content...but I love how they painted out her butt crack... Like, she has uni-butt. I also like that, while they didn't give any fake name (or any name at all) to the musicians...They did come up with lovely track names that have nothing, I'm sure, to do with the actual songs...Spirits of the night, The sea of green, Wild river, Jungle paths, Torrid drums, To the sea, etc. Nice.

An interesting piece of exotica out of Peru, Inti Raimy, seems to be an orchestra interpretation of ancient Inca dances & ritual...ala Elizabeth Waldo, who it very much reminds me of. If you like Ms. Waldo, you'll like these interpretations by the Cuerpo Nacional de Ballet.

I think the first track on the album, Tropical safari, stands on it's own as exotica great if only because the bird calls and monkey shrieks are so loud they nearly drown out the actual music. Jungle adventure in music & sound features the Don Randi Trio, Curtis Amy & The Exotic Strings. It definitely worth a listen, but I think a few tracks are strange using prerecorded jungle drumming & their own compositions over it & they don't rhythmically seem to match up too well.

I was surprised when I came across this album several years ago..I'd never heard of it. I know we all love Les Baxter but it is very refreshing to hear someone other than Les Baxter or Martin Denny playing Baxter's exotica compositions. Don Tiare has a different approach, completely exotic and small comboish, but they just sound DIFFERENT interpreted by someone else. Don Tiare also recorded several traditional steel guitar type records & a few very lush beautiful string orchestra albums of Hawaiian & Tahitian songs. Several originals were composed for this album as well. Tracks include : Quiet village, Bangkok cockfight, Sampan landing, Crickets of Karachi, Girl behind the bamboo curtain, River of dreams, Cockatoo, Sunrise at Kowloon, Jacaranda, Jungle trail, Corazon, & Qui bir hackeim.

She looks familiar...although somewhat drag queenish on the left lp cover...

I was REALLY excited when I found this one in a box among a hundred boxes of records at our local public radio used record sale several years ago...I was flipping thru lps like a madman because I only had an hour before work and caught a glimpse of it and let out a "yelp" and flipped back and grabbed it. The lady across looked at me strangely and I explained how RARE this lp was & it's the first time I've ever SEEN it in person & , "hell yeah, for $2..I EXCITED!!" Monta Moya & The Surfers for all the world sound like Cal Jader. Tracks include: Black orchid, Masa coti, Mose's mambo, etc.
I love the liner notes: Pecussionata is a sound painting representing some of the most beautiful & exotic regions on this earth, portrayed in sound is the native art of living gracefully, simply, & happily for all those who visit or remain at a tropical paradise. The ebb & flow of the sea, tradewind breezes thru palm trees & the rainbow coloring of flowers are expressed in these songs. The rhythms are woven into a fascinating, percussive & provacative musical safari into the mysteries of this exotic culture." Man..it makes me feel so SPECIAL...

One of the mothers of all "she looks familiar", I'm sure most of America had at least one record purchased at a dept. store or grocery with this woman's picture on it....

And, btw, both the Lovely Hawaii & Hawaiian paradise albums are all instrumental lps recorded by The Polynesians featuring many original compositions and are VERY nice, pretty background luau music....steel guitar, vibes, guitar, ukulele..nice stuff.

On 2009-11-17 15:33, Kaiwaza wrote:I love the liner notes: Pecussionata is a sound painting representing some of the most beautiful & exotic regions on this earth, portrayed in sound is the native art of living gracefully, simply, & happily for all those who visit or remain at a tropical paradise. The ebb & flow of the sea, tradewind breezes thru palm trees & the rainbow coloring of flowers are expressed in these songs. The rhythms are woven into a fascinating, percussive & provacative musical safari into the mysteries of this exotic culture."

Pretty much the complete vocabulary of the Exotica dictionary, all in one paragraph ...except maybe for "primitive" and "savage"...but the music is probably too mellow for that.

On 2009-11-17 15:39, Kaiwaza wrote:One of the mothers of all "she looks familiar", I'm sure most of America had at least one record purchased at a dept. store or grocery with this woman's picture on it....

Kaiwaza - any chance at all there's a name attributed to the lady on these covers?!

Bacchanal! The passions & pageantry of gods & goddesses of mythology by Frank DeVol & his orchestra is an orchestral fantasy featuring such tracks as Neptune, Mercury, Helen of Troy, Morpheus, Bacchus...16 tracks in all. Style-wise, if you have a stack-able turntable (which is on my Christmas list), this would play well with Dominic Frontiere's Pagan festival.

Here's a gem. Werner Muller's hip & groovy orchestra has recorded several great albums...Hawaiian swing many of us are familiar with and it's a killer. Also of interest, his Cherry blossom time in Japan lp and THIS treasure East of India. Something inbetween "The Brady Bunch has an Oriental holiday" and "The Jet Set does Bali" it's a festival of traditional tunes jazzed up & original tone poems. Tracks include: On The Kyushu Island, Ritual dance, Sampans on the river, Bazaar melody, etc.

A lovely exotic album, Armenian descent American Anita Darian, it is claimed on the liner notes, has a greater vocal range than Yma Sumac. Of note also is that the orchestra is directed by Frank Hunter, of White goddess fame. Selections include: Poor butterfly, Misirlou, Come on-a my house (in Armenian), On a little street in Singapore, etc.

I've never thought of this lp as particularly rare, but as I was flipping through lps yesterday, I did realize that I never really see it anywhere. It's Arthur Lyman interpreting strictly Latin songs on Everest records.

I love this 1960 album by Tito Puente. The music is beyond wild, throbbing, dissonant...like the liner notes say "an exciting display of tropical melody which echoes the primitive pulsations of the jungle...If your taste runs toward the torrid & tropical, then Tambo should suit you to a t." It certainly does. This album has been reissued on cd, but without the great & unusual cover art..a rare example of a man being featured, rather than the female.

Typical Baxter-esque music for the film. Not my favorite, but it's a rarity.

Here's an Italian release by L'orchestra hawaiiana di Kaumakani. Well, not really. It's all Arthur Lyman selections released under a pseudonym. I guess they weren't able to release this music under his actual name, or perhaps it's just bootlegged..?...probably not.

The Gene Rains Group was "discovered" by Alfred Apaka and he arranged for their subsequent gigs at the Hilton Hawaiian Hotel's Shell Bar. Obviously, a Martin Denny copycat group, they had great success and recorded several records mostly on Decca. This album Rains in the tropics seems the most difficult to find these days. Tracks include: Shangri-la, Jasmine & jade, Tiki, Off shore, Lonely winter, etc. Very beautiful, both the music & the cover art.

The rites of Diablo on Forum by Johnny Richards is a hot little album. A kind of crazy jazz, bongo salute to the Bantu of South Africa. (As if they had any clue, but it sounded good). The suite has 6 movements: Omo ado (Son of a libertine), Kele kele (The smooth one), La pecadora (The shrew), Ochun (Goddess Afrodita Yoruba), Oluo anu (Return of the dead), Ofo (Dance of the dead)...you get the picture.

Finally today, a sweet little find from the UK, Strange enchantment featuring husband & wife vocalists David & Marianne Dalmour. This 1966 album has really grown on me and I've come to really enjoy their moody harmonics. From the liner notes: "Marianne Dalmour is strikingly beautiful. Although, like her husband, she comes from the north of England, she looks like an Inca princess when she is singing." Selections include the title song plus It happened in Kaloha, Blue Bahamas, Moon over Miami, Kalua lullaby, Red sails in the sunset, etc. This would be a welcomed cd reissue, I'd think.
The lovely Dalmours

That's an awesome collection...and I so relate to the idea that sometimes I think I'm contributing to the preservaqtion of recorded history and other times I think I'm just crazy. Wish I had the SPACE! God forbid if I ever get a HOUSE.